California recently passed SB-277, which drastically tightened the list of excuses that’ll get you out of vaccinating your kids. Unfortunately, anti-vaxxers aren’t ready to cooperate, because that’s how much not vaccinating their kids means to them. »7/15/15 7:00pm 7/15/15 7:00pm

Dianna Bedwell, 68, was stranded in her car in a South California desert for two weeks in May. Yesterday she made her first public comments about the ordeal which she barely survived and killed her 79-year-old husband Cecil “Paul” Knutson.»7/12/15 2:15pm 7/12/15 2:15pm

“I wouldn’t go unarmed,” warns the city manager of Colfax, California. He is at least five inches shorter than the men who flank him, but just as thick and white. He is the friendly one, if friendly can be defined as engaging in a conversation. »7/02/15 6:50pm 7/02/15 6:50pm

California Governor Jerry Brown has signed SB 277 into law, which will require the vast majority of children to be fully vaccinated to attend school or daycare. The debate over the bill was... robust. »6/30/15 2:45pm 6/30/15 2:45pm

The 11-year-old girl’s mother saw the Facebook message first. It came from a profile that looked like it belonged to the girl’s beloved aunt, but the words didn’t sound like her. »6/29/15 12:50pm 6/29/15 12:50pm

Until the evening of June 23, California lawmakers were actually being asked to address something called the Sodomite Suppression Act, which advocated for the killing “by bullets to the head or by any other convenient method” of anyone who participated in any kind of gay sex. But, as we don’t live in an… »6/23/15 10:30pm 6/23/15 10:30pm

California Assembly Member Shannon Grove is generating cascades of headlines over the last couple days for her very reasonable, well thought-out, scientific point of view that her state’s crippling drought is caused by abortion. She’s been defending that view to her constituents on Facebook, which, again — great plan. »6/12/15 11:10am 6/12/15 11:10am

A new lawsuit claims that hip, woman-led clothing company Nasty Gal is “a horrible place to work for professional women who become pregnant,” accusing the company of illegally firing four pregnant women. The suit, filed by ex-employee Aimee Concepcion, says Nasty Gal terminated her and three other women, as well as… »6/09/15 10:15am 6/09/15 10:15am

Just days after graduation, a yearbook at Berkeley High School in California has been recalled due to the discovery of a passage that refers to some students as “trash collators of tomorrow.” The Washington Postreports the line in question refers to students in the Academy of Medicine and Public Service - “a college… »6/08/15 11:30am 6/08/15 11:30am

Attention all average, water-using folks who live in Southern California: droughtshaming just got a bit more Hunger Games, thanks to formerly friendly neighbors who’ve bypassed the celebrity cogwheel and have instead taken to ratting each other out. »5/26/15 11:30am 5/26/15 11:30am

A proposed law being considered in the California State Assembly would force anti-abortion crisis pregnancy centers to post signs letting their clients know that they’re not medical facilities. Anti-abortion groups are predictably pissed, claiming the measure is “bullying” and, as Heartbeat International put it,… »5/22/15 3:10pm 5/22/15 3:10pm

California congresswoman and current Senate candidate Loretta Sanchez has come under pretty intense scrutiny after making a “war cry” sound and gesture during an informal talk at the California Democratic Party Convention. Sanchez made the stereotypical gesture while explaining to a group of California Democrats that… »5/17/15 1:45pm 5/17/15 1:45pm

This weekend, the New York Times published two laughably conflicting articles about California—one from the Style section on the happy-go-lucky migration westward of New York City’s “creative class,” and one that looks at a state going brown, well into the fourth year of its historically ruinous drought. »5/04/15 2:15pm 5/04/15 2:15pm

I know a place in the Mojave Desert where there are rocks in the shape of Billy Martin. I visit the rocks every year to commemorate the return of spring. It makes perfect sense to me that the rocks are in the desert and not a mountain range or forest because the gone-but-not-forgotten Yankee manager was a kind of… »4/28/15 5:30pm 4/28/15 5:30pm

We (Jane Marie and Kara) are headed to Coachella. Free from the burden of packing like sensible adults, we're loading up our bags to hang out with all the cool kids and social media influencers out in the desert. Here's what we're bringing. »4/10/15 2:50pm 4/10/15 2:50pm

On Monday, Darren Sharper, alleged serial rapist and fallen NFL star, is expected to take a plea deal settling a myriad of rape and drugging charges involving women in California, Nevada, Louisiana and Arizona. The hearings are slated to take place in Los Angeles, the city where he's been in jail since last year. »3/23/15 12:30pm 3/23/15 12:30pm

A new investigation from NARAL Pro-Choice California finds that—surprise!—crisis pregnancy centers are still lying to women, delivering their trademark mixture of shame, guilt, misinformation and outright lies to persuade them not to have abortions. An undercover NARAL worker was told by a CPC employee that her IUD,… »3/16/15 11:00am 3/16/15 11:00am